Favorite Books of 2022 | TTT | 1/3/23

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Please check out her website for more TTT topics!

This week’s topic is:

Favorite Books of 2022

Happy New Year! I can’t believe we are now in 2023. Another year has passed and so looking back these were some of my favorite books of 2022. And I say “some” because I feel like I had a few more favorites than just the ones listed below:

What was some of your faves of 2022?

What’s on your TTT?

Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection | TTT | 12/27/22

This week’s topic is:

Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection

(What books did you get as presents this holiday season? Or what did you buy with gift cards?)

Okay I bought these myself for my kindle app – so these were gifts to myself. Plus they were on sale, I couldn’t pass it up!

As for books I got under the tree – I got nada lol – but that was expected. My mother-in-law who buys me books just moved, she’s elderly and just getting everywhere it a bit difficult for her so she sent me and the kids a check to spend. So I think this is what I will buy for myself:

Other than that I just wait for the books I want to hit my library. I have to save some money this year so we can go visit my husband in Okinawa – so books will have to take a back seat this year!

Let me know what books you got under the tree this year!

What’s on your TTT?

Books I Hope Santa Brings This Year | TTT | 12/20/22

This week’s topic is:

Books I Hope Santa Brings This Year

I only have these five books I want for Christmas! What books do you hope to get as gifts this year?

What’s on your TTT?

Books on My Winter 2022-2023 To-Read List | TTT | 12/13/22

This week’s topic is:

Books on My Winter 2022-2023 To-Read List

East and West. Humans and Spirits. Breccans and Tamerlaines. The Isle of Cadence has always held itself and its residents in a tenuous balance. But now Bane, the spirit of the North Wind, has pushed everyone and everything in his path off-kilter in a bid to claim dominion over all.

In the West, Adaira struggles to adjust to the more brutal, bitter ways of life among the Breccans. Striving to find her place in the clan, she swiftly realizes that it just might be the last role she desires to hold. And while magic blooms effortlessly for the Breccans in the west, the spirits continue to suffer beneath Bane’s harsh power, felt in every gust of wind.

In the East, Jack is adrift without Adaira until he sings to the ember-weak fire spirits, acquiring a dangerous mission he never expected. One that is destined to lead him westward. Likewise, Torin and Sidra are consumed by a new mystery as sickness spreads first amongst the crops, and then to the people of the Tamerlaine clan. While Sidra desperately searches for a cure, Torin dares to strike a bargain with the spirits—a precarious folly anytime, but especially now as the days grow darker.

With the island falling further out of balance, humans and spirits alike will need to join together to face Bane, and Jack’s gift with the harp will be called upon once more. Yet no one can challenge the North Wind without paying a terrible price, and the sacrifice required this time may be more than Jack, Adaira, Torin, and Sidra can bear to pay.

In the stunning conclusion to the Elements of Cadence duology, A Fire Endless finds the delicate balance between the human and faerie realm threatened by Bane, the spirit of the North Wind, whose defeat can only come through fire, song, and heart-rending sacrifice.

A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love, in this heartwarming and enchanting fantasy.

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party–or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones–the most elusive of all faeries–lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all–her own heart.

In a fallen kingdom, one girl carries the key to discovering the secrets of her nation’s past—and unleashing the demons that sleep at its heart. An epic fantasy series inspired by the mythology and folklore of ancient China.

Once, Lan had a different name. Now she goes by the one the Elantian colonizers gave her when they invaded her kingdom, killed her mother, and outlawed her people’s magic. She spends her nights as a songgirl in Haak’gong, a city transformed by the conquerors, and her days scavenging for what she can find of the past. Anything to understand the strange mark burned into her arm by her mother in her last act before she died.

The mark is mysterious—an untranslatable Hin character—and no one but Lan can see it. Until the night a boy appears at her teahouse and saves her life.

Zen is a practitioner—one of the fabled magicians of the Last Kingdom. Their magic was rumored to have been drawn from the demons they communed with. Magic believed to be long lost. Now it must be hidden from the Elantians at all costs.

When Zen comes across Lan, he recognizes what she is: a practitioner with a powerful ability hidden in the mark on her arm. He’s never seen anything like it—but he knows that if there are answers, they lie deep in the pine forests and misty mountains of the Last Kingdom, with an order of practitioning masters planning to overthrow the Elantian regime.

Both Lan and Zen have secrets buried deep within—secrets they must hide from others, and secrets that they themselves have yet to discover. Fate has connected them, but their destiny remains unwritten. Both hold the power to liberate their land. And both hold the power to destroy the world.

Now the battle for the Last Kingdom begins.

When a couple starts to feel like they’re married to a stranger, a flirtatious game of pretend becomes the spark they need to reignite their relationship.

Eliza and Graham are anticipating an anything-but-sexy, weeklong getaway to celebrate their five-year anniversary. Nestled on the Northern California coastline, the resort prides itself on being a destination for those in love and those looking to find it. For Eliza and Graham, it might as well be a vacation with a roommate.

When a well-meaning guest mistakes Eliza and Graham for being single and introduces them at the hotel bar, they don’t correct him. Suddenly, they’re pretending to be perfect strangers and it’s unexpectedly…fun? Eliza and Graham find themselves flirting like it’s their first date, and waiting with butterflies in their stomach for the other to text back.

Everyone at the retreat can sense the electric chemistry between Eliza and Graham’s alter egos. But when their scintillating game of roleplaying ends, will they still feel the heat?

Return to the opulent world of Elfhame, filled with intrigue, betrayal, and dangerous desires, with this first book of a captivating new duology from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black.

A runaway queen. A reluctant prince. And a quest that may destroy them both.

Eight years have passed since the Battle of the Serpent. But in the icy north, Lady Nore of the Court of Teeth has reclaimed the Ice Needle Citadel. There, she is using an ancient relic to create monsters of stick and snow who will do her bidding and exact her revenge.

Suren, child queen of the Court of Teeth, and the one person with power over her mother, fled to the human world. There, she lives feral in the woods. Lonely, and still haunted by the merciless torments she endured in the Court of Teeth, she bides her time by releasing mortals from foolish bargains. She believes herself forgotten until the storm hag, Bogdana chases her through the night streets. Suren is saved by none other than Prince Oak, heir to Elfhame, to whom she was once promised in marriage and who she has resented for years.

Now seventeen, Oak is charming, beautiful, and manipulative. He’s on a mission that will lead him into the north, and he wants Suren’s help. But if she agrees, it will mean guarding her heart against the boy she once knew and a prince she cannot trust, as well as confronting all the horrors she thought she left behind.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz comes a ripped-from-the-headlines new adult mystery about all the missing girls who fall off the radar…

#WhereisAmeliaAshley

The Influencer
Amelia Ashley shares everything with her followers – her favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurants, her best fashion tips, and her European trip-of-a-lifetime with her hot boyfriend.

The Boyfriend
Josh has no choice but to return home without Amelia after she abandons him in Rome. He has no clue where she went or how her blood got in his suitcase. Why won’t anyone believe him?

The Hacker
To Harper Delgado, Amelia Ashley is just another missing white girl whipping up a media frenzy. But with each digital knot she untangles about the influencer, Harper wonders: who is Amelia Ashley?

The Other Girl
Two years ago, another girl went missing, one who never made headlines or had a trending hashtag.

The Truth
Amelia’s disappearance has captured the world’s attention. What comes next? Watch this space…

Ava and Torin face forbidden love, and a monstrous queen.

Vibrantly funny, endearingly sweet, and a love letter to all things rom com, Jayne Denker’s The Rom Com Agenda is a story of two people finding love right when they least expect it.

You know how the story’s supposed to go…but love makes its own plans.

STEP 1: Find yourself
Leah Keegan is used to being alone, especially after taking care of her sick foster mother for the past year. But now there’s nothing keeping her in the sweet town of Willow Cove. It’s time to move on. Again.

STEP 2: Win back the one who got away
Eli Masterson thought he and Victoria were meant to be together until she decided to jet off to Rome for a year. Eli is determined to win her back. But how?

STEP 3: Become a romantic hero
Changing Eli’s physical appearance is easy, but to turn Eli into the sophisticated-yet-vulnerable ideal man, his girl pals force him to watch classic rom-coms. And take notes.

STEP 4: Fall in love?
Inadvertently drawn into the makeover scheme, Leah ends up being Eli’s guide through the wild world of meet-cutes and grand gestures. Even though she believes Eli doesn’t need to change a thing about himself. Even though she just might be falling for Eli . . . and Eli falling for her.

“The perfect swoony, slow burn, sentimental romantic comedy that we all deserve .” –New York Times bestselling author Jenn McKinlay

Nova Albright was going to be the first Black homecoming queen at Lovett High—but now she’s dead. Murdered on coronation night. Fans of One of Us Is Lying and The Other Black Girl will love this unputdownable thriller.

Nova Albright, the first Black homecoming queen at Lovett High, is dead. Murdered the night of her coronation, her body found the next morning in the old slave cemetery she spent her weekends rehabilitating.

Tinsley McArthur was supposed to be queen. Not only is she beautiful, wealthy, and white, it’s her legacy—her grandmother, her mother, and even her sister wore the crown before her. Everyone in Lovett knows Tinsley would do anything to carry on the McArthur tradition.

No one is more certain of that than Duchess Simmons, Nova’s best friend. Duchess’s father is the first Black police captain in Lovett. For Duchess, Nova’s crown was more than just a win for Nova. It was a win for all the Black kids. Now her best friend is dead, and her father won’t fact the fact that the main suspect is right in front of him. Duchess is convinced that Tinsley killed Nova—and that Tinsley is privileged enough to think she can get away with it. But Duchess’s father seems to be doing what he always does: fall behind the blue line. Which means that the white girl is going to walk.

Duchess is determined to prove Tinsley’s guilt. And to do that, she’ll have to get close to her.

But Tinsley has an agenda, too.

Everyone loved Nova. And sometimes, love is exactly what gets you killed.

Steeped in mystery and rich in imagination, an exhilarating historical novel set in Georgian London where the discovery of a mysterious ancient Greek vase sets in motion conspiracies, revelations, and romance.

London, 1799. Dora Blake, an aspiring jewelry artist, lives with her odious uncle atop her late parents’ once-famed shop of antiquities. After a mysterious Greek vase is delivered, her uncle begins to act suspiciously, keeping the vase locked in the store’s basement, away from prying eyes–including Dora’s. Intrigued by her uncle’s peculiar behavior, Dora turns to young, ambitious antiquarian scholar Edward Lawrence who eagerly agrees to help. Edward believes the ancient vase is the key that will unlock his academic future; Dora sees it as a chance to establish her own name.

But what Edward discovers about the vase has Dora questioning everything she has believed about her life, her family, and the world as she knows it. As Dora uncovers the truth, she comes to understand that some doors are locked and some mysteries are buried for a reason, while others are closer to the surface than they appear.

A story of myth and mystery, secrets and deception, fate and hope, Pandora is an enchanting work of historical fiction as captivating and evocative as The Song of Achilles, The Essex Serpent, and The Miniaturist.

I have a few of these arcs that I need to start working on which is great! I’m excited to get started on them and knock them off my TBR list. What’s on your TTT?

Winter Theme Book Covers | TTT | 12/6/22

This week’s topic is:

Winter Theme Book Covers

Cozy Reads | TTT | 11/29/22

This week’s topic is:

Cozy Reads

(Share books that give off a cozy vibe, whether through atmosphere, setting, or some other factor.)

The atmosphere of this story is cozy! It is set in a northern island – think cold, warm plaids, warm stews. Definitely cozy and magical. Perfect read for a rainy day.

Christmas in a small town and a cat cafe? How much more cozy can it get? Well…I guess it could get more cozy if there was snow in the setting but that’s ok, at least there is pastries!

A Miami Cuban girl goes to England and meets a boy who brews her tea. So cozy!

A family holiday tradition at a cabin – there is family, family hijinks and drama, snow, presents, hot cocoa and romance.

A winter escape to Lapland! It’s a winter wonderland and the perfect setting for a cozy holiday read.

Small town romance on an island – heartwarming and lovely cast of characters.

What’s more cozy than a bookshop in Paris?

I thought this was a cute read and I think it’s cozy because of how her family tries to hook her up with a new boy after her ex cheated on her. There is family, food and a sweet romance. Maybe it’s more comforting than cozy but I’m adding.

I find a lot of holiday reads cozy – what’s on your list?

Books I Am Thankful For | TTT | 11/22/22

This week’s topic is: *Thankful Freebie*

Books I Am Thankful For

I’m going to be listing my 4.5-5 STAR reads of 2022 so far and I’m thankful for these books because they made my crazy/challenging year just a little bit better and that’s always a good thing!

5 STARS:

4.5 STARS:

I just realized how sparingly I dole out the 5 Stars for a book! But all of these books entertained me or touched my heart in some way and it’s all I ever want in a book.

Also, I am oh so VERY thankful for all of you who come by and stop to check out my blogposts. I appreciate every view, click, comment and that I found a community that love reading books as much as I do. Thank you all and happy thanksgiving to everyone that is celebrating the holiday.

Favorite “Aww” Moments In Books | TTT | 11/15/22

This week’s topic is:

Favorite “Aww” Moments In Books

(Share those sweet/cute moments in books that give you warm fuzzies.)

When Jack says this to Adaira: “From your life came mine. I would not exist if you had been born in the east. I am but a verse inspired by your chorus, and I will follow you until the end, when the isle takes my bones and my name is nothing more than a remembrance on a headstone, next to yours.” 🥺

The ending when Florence goes to Ben’s office, wondering if he remembers what happened in the past week…and she says “set the scene”…ugh…my heart!❤️

All the cats in this book. 🐱

Audrey’s meet-cute with Fred was the things “love at first sight” is made of but her steady relationship with Josh was what I was rooting for. Loved how her whole wedding was a disaster but by the end it all works out perfectly.

Everything about Willow and Mason together – their nights looking through a telescope. ✨

The moment when this terror of a Dachshund finally relents and trusts her new owners. 🥺

Every time she makes him Cuban food and he brews her tea. Match made in heaven. ❤️

These are just from my most recent reads. I know there are more somewhere in my memory bank lol but I’ve read too many books to try and remember. What’s on your TTT today?

Series I’d Like to Start/Catch up on/Finish | TTT | 11/8/22

This week’s topic is:

Series I’d Like to Start/Catch up on/Finish

It’s one of those things where I thought I finished the series at Ignite Me and then the author adds more books years later. I read Restore Me and Defy Me but still haven’t read Imagine Me and I will one day, hopefully sooner than later.

I read Cinder so long ago and has always wanted to continue the series but never did pick it up again. I love that it’s still circulating and popular though. I did love Cinder.

I keep putting this on my series to finish lists lol. I will finish, I will. (Keep telling myself that) But I really want to know how it ends.

Maybe I’ll start this series when the author finishes the series lol. I love the show and I did almost get through book one but I stopped. Would like to finish it one day.

I still need to read book four!

I’ve had trouble finishing series lately – maybe because it just takes so long for the next book to come out and there are so many books out there to read! Plus I’m not a re-reader like I used to be pre-blog. How are you with finishing a series?

Unlikable Characters You Can’t Help but Love | TTT | 11/1/22

This week’s topic is:

Unlikable Characters You Can’t Help but Love

(These are villains, criminals, jerks, etc. that make you fall in love with them anyway, perhaps because they evolve by the end or they’re secretly wonderful and have been all along.)

Parisa – All the characters in The Atlas Six are flawed and unlikable in some way but Parisa is so intriguing. I’m curious to see how her character arc goes.
Violet – she’s the kind of antihero I can’t help but root for!
Ren – she kills and kills to get her brother back, she’s a bit psychotic but I do admire her love for her sibling.

Maddy – she’s so misunderstood. 😦
King Vincent – he’s a ruthless vampire and yet he raised and protected a human child until his death.
Lord Shin– he comes off like the enemy at first…but then we get to know him and fall in love with him.

Vittoria – okay she’s done many things she shouldn’t have but I think she has a story to tell and I’m here willing to listen to it lol.
Kasta – hated him in book one, book two he was growing on me, we shall see in book three if he can fully redeem himself!
Jacks – he SHOULD be unlikable, but I love the bad boys